The President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly defines Portugal as a “crucial partner” – Observer
The president of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly this Friday classified Portugal as a “crucial partner”, highlighting the ongoing process of reviewing the strategic concept of the Atlantic Alliance, one of the themes of the 67th annual session of this Assembly, organized in Lisbon.
The North American Gerald Connolly was speaking at the press conference that Assembly marked the opening of the work of this session – which runs until the 11th – which was also attended by the secretary general of the Parliamentarian of NATO, a Frenchwoman Ruxandra Popa, and the Social-Democratic deputy Adão Silva, president of the Portuguese delegation at that assembly.
Conolly thanked the Portuguese hospitality and welcomed the high rate of the vaccinated populationa, which facilitates the organization of the event, considering that “Portugal is a good role model for the United States in this field“.
Recalling that the country is one of the founding members of the Atlantic Alliance, the president also said that the country is “a crucial partner”.
Gerald Connolly also referred that NATO is reviewing its strategic concept, recalling that the latter mentions Russia as a partner, “which it is not at all”, and does not even mention China.
“We are a collective security alliance, committed to our collective security, but at the same time we are an alliance that comes together around common democratic values, because if we are not equal in our commitments then we are just another military alliance that apparently does not like of certain people or countries”, he stressed.
Ruxandra Popa shared the president’s happiness in to be able to organize this session in person after the Covid-19 pandemic, Accounting under discussion in committees 15 draft reports and several resolutions.
“The Assembly is institutionally separate from NATO, it is a separate ‘body’, but these resolutions will be felt by the Secretary General of NATO and by the governments of member countries,” he explained.
From this Friday to October 11, the Portuguese parliament will host the 67th session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, which will be attended by the secretary general of the Alliance and will address the situation in Afghanistan and the covid-19 pandemic.
An annual session, organized this year in Lisbon, will include the participation of members of the Portuguese Government, official NATO representatives, experts in defense matters, legislators from the 30 NATO member states and representatives of Alliance partner countries and parliamentary bodies.
According to the official programme, among the topics on the table eliminated the NATO 2030 agenda and the revision of the strategic concept, “the lessons learned from NATO’s involvement in Afghanistan”, Russia and China, the evolution of the situation in the Middle East and in North Africa, climate change and even “democratic resilience and misinformation” or the covid-19 pandemic, among others.
The plenary meeting on Monday (11), will feature processes from the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, the prime minister, António Costa, the President of the House of Representatives of United States of America, Nancy Pelosi, United Nations Under-Secretary-General, Jean-Pierre Renaud Lacroix (representing Secretary-General, António Guterres), and NATO Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, among others.
Nancy Pelosi in Lisbon on Monday to receive award from NATO Parliamentary Assembly